The first full account of the adventures of Robin Hood [1], Maid Marian, Friar Tuck and their merry band of outlaw-foresters, their various encounters with the hapless Sheriff of Nottingham and their struggles against the redoubtable King John who’s seeking to usurp the kingdom from his brother Richard Coeur-de-Lion – to whom Robin and his followers have sworn allegiance – while he is absent campaingning in the Holy Lands.
A famous tale elegantly recounted by the distinguished man of (…)
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"Maid Marian" by Thomas Love Peacock (1822) – the original Robin Hood story
31 May 2023, by Thomas Love Peacock -
"The Love Song of the Tomcat Murr" by E.T.A. Hoffmann (1821)
30 April 2023, by E. T. A. HoffmannThe account of his love affair with the lovely Miesmies by the very gifted tomcat Murr, who had been taught to read and write by his erudite master and who had then proceeded to write his autobiography, including this most delightful episode from E.T.A. Hoffmann’s wonderful masterwork “The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr (1821).”
(2,400 words)
Translated specially for this site. An e-book, with the original text in an annex, is available for downloading below.
The original text (…) -
"Twice-Told Tales" by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1837)
22 April 2023, by Nathaniel HawthorneThe first book published by the future author of The Scarlet Letter, a collection of stories that had previously appeared in various New England newspapers, all evoking the past epochs of that English colony, all with a tinge of the occult and the mysterious, and just about all with a quite passionate anger at the rigidities and injustices of the rigorous Puritan mentality that was so characteristic of that colony and that was still somewhat present in later times there.
A precious and (…) -
"Youth is Beautiful" by Hermann Hesse (1916)
17 March 2023, by Hermann HesseHermann Hesse, the celebrated author of Siddharta and Steppenwolf, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1947, was also a masterful writer of short stories, of which this delicate, charming account of a young man returning to his birthplace is an outstanding example.
(14,400 words)
It has been specially translated here for this site. An e-book, with the original text in an annex, is available for downloading below.
The original text can also be seen here. CHAPTER ONE (…) -
"Granite" by the Austrian writer and painter Adalbert Stifter (1853)
25 February 2023, by Adalbert StifterAn account of life and death and nature in the high alps in upper Austria long before modern life changed the ancient ways in those remote parts, recounted with strong poetic overtones by the narrator as he remembers a striking incident from his youth in that magnificent region.
A charming, captivating and finally very moving reading experience.
By the gifted Austrian writer, painter and teacher Adalbert Stifter (1805-1868), one of the leading figures of the Biedermeier literary movement (…) -
"Immensee" by Theodor Sturm (1849)
5 February 2023, by Theodor SturmAn elderly man meditates on the great love of his life, a young girl who had promised to follow him around the world but who had married one of his oldest friends while he was away from her pursuing his university studies.
Delicately told in the light, poetical and nature-loving style of one of the most gifted and prolific German writers of his time, the distinguished jurist, poet, novelist and story-writer Theodor Sturm (1817-1888).
(11,300 words)
Translated by C. W. Bell M. A. an (…) -
"Cards at Dawn" (Spiel im Morgengrauen), aka "Night Games", by Arthur Schnitzler (1926)
21 December 2022, by Arthur SchnitzlerA young officer in Vienna decides to help a former comrade in need by risking his meagre funds in a card game with fellow officers and a selection of respectable local citizens. A decision that leads inexorably to drama and downfall culminating in a final existential crisis that plunges him into the very depths of his soul and a final understanding of just what kind of a man he really is.
Clearly although not specifically set in the years prior to the outbreak of World War I, this (…) -
"The Stone Heart " by E. T. A. Hoffmann (1817)
14 November 2022, by E. T. A. HoffmannThe Court Counsellor Reutlinger organizes an elaborate festival on his grounds every three years to which everyone in the area, young and old, is invited – on the condition that they put on the clothes and accoutrements of the year 1760, a particularly important moment in the Counsellor’s life, as he explains to a distinguished lady of his own age some forty years afterwards as they stroll through his grounds among the revelry – and resolves a lifelong dilemma in doing so.
A charming tale (…) -
"Gambler’s Luck" by E. T. A. Hoffmann (1820)
7 November 2022, by E. T. A. HoffmannA powerful moral fable about the addictive and devastating fascination for gambling that has wreaked so much havoc in so many lives throughout time, by one of the leading spirts of the German Romanic movement. (12,000 words) an e-book, with the original texts in an annex, is available for downloading below.
The original texts can also be seen here. GAMBLER’S LUCK
Pyrmont had a larger concourse of visitors than ever in the summer of 18—. The number of rich and illustrious strangers (…) -
"Mozart’s Journey From Vienna to Prague" by Eduard Mörike (1855)
31 October 2022, by Eduard MörikeA particularly charming and renowned (in German-speaking countries) fictional account, by one of the major German poets of the 19th century, of the encounters and adventures and (brilliant) conversations of the great composer on the way from Vienna to Prague where his new opera Don Giovanni was about to be premiered.
(18,900 words)
Translated into English by Florence Leonard in 1897. An e-book, with the original text in an annex, is available for downloading below.
The original text (…)